Friday, December 10, 2010

This is a level of corruption that we don’t often see: The new government in Nigeria wants to charge Dick Cheney, the former vice president and chairman of Halliburton, in connection with $180 million in bribes paid to Nigerian lawmakers. The lawmakers awarded a $6 billion construction contract for a natural gas pipeline to Halliburton when Cheney led the company. Those are some big numbers! But consider these: Millionaires paid more than $200 million in bribes – oops, legal campaign contributions – to Members of Congress who are now maneuvering to award them a tax break worth $100 billion a year. And here’s another absolute outrage, a follow-up to the story (Link: 12/8/2010) about the Duke Energy executive in Charlotte, Jim Turner, who resigned in the midst of an embarrassing scandal involving job promises to top regulators overseeing the cost of Duke’s construction project in Indiana. Under pressure from angry citizens in Indiana, Duke has agreed to renegotiate how much it charges utility customers for its construction project. But now it turns out that Duke will pay Turner a $3.8 million severance package, plus a possible half-million-dollar bonus for 2010. So, contrary to being an embarrassment, Duke might as well as say, “Job well done, young man! We agree: screw the public, grow the profits.” The NC Utilities Commission should investigate whether the ratepayers of this regulated monopoly will be stuck with the bill for Turner’s misconduct or will it come out Duke’s shareholder profits. Who is holding corporations accountable for crossing the line? Should we invite the Nigerian government to North Carolina to teach us some lessons? In the post-Citizens United era, when corporations claim enlarged domain over elections, regulators and lawmakers, the public has every right to demand enlarged accountability for every mistake corporations make that affect our public life. Rights come with responsibilities.